Chaos
by Loveedith
Summary: Edith tells Marigold about Michael Gregson. Chaos ensues.
1. Bertie

Just a few hours earlier Bertie Pelham, the seventh Marquess of Hexham, had lived a calm and peaceful life.

After more than ten years of marriage he still loved Edith to distraction. He had three wonderful children that he also loved, his thirteen-year-old daughter Marigold and his two boys, nine-year-old Herbert and seven-year-old Peter.

After little Peter was born, the children had stopped coming. Game was over, they had thought, and contented themselves with that.

Then, more than six years later, Edith had realised that she was expecting a baby again.

That had been a happy but a bit unsettling surprise, for Edith as well as for Bertie. But after they had time to get used to it, it changed into just happy.

The future sister and brothers of the baby were happy about it too, when they were told a few months later. They had all understood that their new sibling would always be very much smaller than the rest of them.

The three future grandparents were also more than happy about the news when it reached them. None of them had expected ever to get any more grandchildren.

...

Edith was thriving during her pregnancy but Bertie worried much more about her than he had done when she was expecting either one of their two sons. It was only natural that he worried more, Edith was over forty now, quite a bit older than she had been then.

But still, up until this morning, everything had been peaceful in Bertie's life.

That was the time when Edith had decided to tell Marigold the true story of her parentage.

...

After that everything had changed.

"How dared you!" The usually so calm and well-behaved Marigold had shouted at her mother, tears filling her eyes. "How could you leave me like that? A little baby among total strangers? You don't love me! I will never speak to you again!"

And before her mother had a chance to answer, Marigold had run away and locked herself into her room.

Edith herself was unable to try to make peace with her daughter right then. As she tried to get up from the sofa just one moment after Marigold had shouted at her and run to her room, Edith fell back against the cushions with a groan. She had gone into labour.

It was one month early, Bertie was close to panic as he ordered the doctor to be sent for.

And in the tumult that followed everybody had forgotten about Marigold. Bertie didn't give her a second thought as he paced up and down the corridor outside the room were Edith was giving birth.

...

And now the nurse had placed a very tiny baby girl into Bertie's hands. She was the smallest baby Bertie had ever seen. As he held her head in one of his hands and her behind in the other it felt like holding two grapefruits. He put her more comfortable onto one of his arms, closer to his own body.

Could such a little one live?

Well, he could hear her breathe as she slept so trustingly in his arms.

...

What really worried Bertie was that the nurse had taken the baby out to him instead of inviting him in to see Edith. And the doctor was still in there.

"What's wrong with Edith?" Bertie asked the nurse, his voice almost breaking. "Why can't she hold the baby herself? Why can't I go in and see her?"

"There is nothing wrong", the nurse calmly said. "Everything is going just fine. She just has to give birth to the second child first."

...

It took Bertie quite a while to understand what the nurse had said. His head kept spinning. Chaos! That was the only word for it.

Twins? Twins?! Twins!

They hadn't even considered the possibility of that. But when Bertie got over the first shock he felt rather happy about it. And quite a bit proud over it also.

Since these two were so much younger than their other children it would be good for them to have each other, he realised.

As he stood there looking down at his second daughter he suddenly remembered the first one. Marigold! She had been so upset!

Poor little Marigold...Bertie realised that he had forgotten all about her in his worries for Edith. Marigold must think they didn't care about her at all.

...

With his new little daughter resting safely in his arms as a peace offer Bertie Pelham went to see his older daughter.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Please tell me what you think!

...

It was not unusual in those days that a twin pregnancy was overlooked until the children were born. The fact that there were twins, that is.

...

I seem to be getting two new ideas for every story I finish. This will never end...


	2. Marigold

Just a few hours earlier Marigold Pelham, daughter of the seventh Marquess and Marchioness of Hexham had lived a happy and peaceful life.

Then her mother had told her about her birth and her real father.

And everything had changed.

...

Chaos was the only way to describe the turmoil in her mind. Papa was not her Papa. Her real Papa was a man called Michael Gregson! Such a horrible name! Well, Gregson that is, Michael was OK, perhaps, or at least very common.

Marigold had always wondered a bit about her birth because she could remember her parents' wedding.

She had never expected to hear the horrible things she was told, though - that Papa wasn't her real papa, that Mama had left her for two months in Switzerland when she was just a little baby, and then again to a family in a cottage at Downton until she was almost two. That was when Granny Cora had found out about her and she was finally allowed to move into the nursery at Downton.

Marigold didn't remember any of this, of course, but it all sounded very frightening for a little baby or a toddler.

...

What had she thought really? Marigold wondered. That her parents had been together a long time ago and just hadn't got around to marry until many years later?

Yes, something like that, Marigold had to admit. That was what she had thought. Especially since people used to tell her how very much she took after her Papa. Her two brothers both looked much more like Mama, almost the same colours and features.

...

Marigold realised she partly had herself to blame for being told - she had actually asked Mama why she and Papa hadn't married until she was nearly three years old. Something had been strange, but she hadn't understood what until now.

Marigold remembered Sybbie telling her before the wedding that she was going to get a very good Papa. Better than George's new one, but of course not quite as good as Sybbie's own Papa. Sybbie liked that the two Papas had played Punch and Judy for them.

So, of course, Marigold ought to have understood long ago that her Papa wasn't the real one.

...

"How dared you!" Marigold had shouted at her mother, tears filling her eyes. "How could you leave me like that? A little baby among total strangers? You don't love me! I will never speak to you again!"

And before her mother had a chance to answer, Marigold had run away and locked herself up in her room.

...

At first Marigold had been mostly angry, thinking out ways to let Mama suffer for abandoning her like that. Then, as the hours went by and nobody came to her room, she got less and less angry and more and more sad.

At last she started to be more hungry than anything else. But she didn't want to give them the pleasure of coming down without being asked.

So she just remained in her bed, hour after hour, hungry, angry and sad.

...

And then, finally, someone knocked at her door.

Marigold decided not to forgive Mama too easily. But of course she would forgive her.

But it still wasn't Mama. It was Papa. The papa whom she had just been told wasn't her _real_ Papa.

"Please Marigold, let me in", he said, very softly.

"Go away!" Marigold shouted. "I don't need you! You are not my real Papa! I'm sure you don't love me."

It was very quiet outside the door for a long, long time. Marigold started to fear that Papa had really gone away.

"I _do_ love you", she finally heard him say. He was sounding a bit hurt. "Never doubt that. And I have been your real father since you were three. I have enjoyed every minute of that."

There was a long silence again. Marigold didn't know how to answer. It is difficult to harden your heart against someone who is nothing but kind and friendly.

"Never mind about that for now, we can speak about it later on", Papa continued. "I have brought someone to see you. Someone who is your _real_ sister. Mama gave birth to her just a little while ago."

Oh! Marigold thought. She had secretly hoped that the new baby would be a sister.

And this did explain why Mama hadn't had time to come to see her.

So she got up from her bed and walked to the door on trembling legs. She unlocked the door and opened it, not caring that Papa would see all the tears on her cheeks.

Outside Papa was standing, smiling lovingly at her. But the best thing was what he had in his arms.

It was the smallest and sweetest little baby Marigold had ever seen.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for all the friendly reviews to last chapter!


	3. Edith

Just a few hours earlier Edith Pelham, the Marchioness of Hexham, had lived a tranquil and happy life.

Then she had told her daughter about the circumstances around her birth.

After that everything had changed. Chaos was the only way to describe it.

...

It had seemed the perfect time to tell Marigold - she was thirteen years old now, old enough to understand. And she definitely had the right know.

In a month's time Edith was going to give birth to her fourth and probably last child. She would have less time for Marigold when the new baby was born. But right now she had more time than usual, since she didn't want to go up to London or arrange any social events so close to the estimated delivery.

During this pregnancy Edith felt as if she was bigger than the other times. The baby was very lively, kicking and moving almost constantly. Edith was also a lot more tired this time around.

She was certain all of this was because she was so much older than the last time she was expecting a baby.

So she tried to take it easy this last month, declining a couple of invitations she would normally have accepted. Bertie was fussing over her, more than any other time she thought, but she actually enjoyed that this time around. Probably because she was rather certain it was her last baby.

They _did_ have a wonderful life, just like he had told her on their wedding day.

...

"Will I be the maiden aunt?" Edith remembered asking her Grandmother.

Granny had passed away more than five years earlier, but she had lived long enough to meet Marigold and the two boys and see Edith happily married.

So that hadn't happened at all. Edith could wonder now why that had worried her so much, all since she was a small girl. But it was the way girls were brought up in those days - the only thing they were expected or allowed to do was marry and bear children.

Edith had promised herself that Marigold would never feel that way. And times had changed - Marigold's ambition to become a doctor was quite realistic now.

...

Edith had told Bertie that she was going to tell Marigold about Michael Gregson and wanted Bertie to be present. But she wanted to tell the story herself.

So Bertie had just sat there in an armchair, reading a book - or at least pretending that he was reading it.

"I have something to tell you", Edith had said to Marigold. "About your father and what happened when you were born."

Marigold cast a glance at her Papa. Bertie smiled reassuringly at her.

Edith had told Marigold about Michael before, of course. How he had contacted her after reading her article in The Times, how she had written a column for his magazine, how he had let her inherit his London flat and his magazine when he died in Germany. But Marigold had never been much interested in this. And Edith had always pretended that the relationship between her and Michael had been strictly professional.

Now Edith told Marigold the rest of it - except that visit to the doctor in London. She was too ashamed about that and had never told anyone but Bertie about it.

But even so Marigold had reacted much stronger than Edith had expected.

Edith told Marigold how she had gradually fallen in love with Michael. How she had tried to resist it, but it had only grown stronger. And then she told her about that one night in London, before Michael left for Germany, when Marigold had been conceived. She told her about how she had realised that she was pregnant, how Aunt Rosamund had arranged to go to Switzerland with her to hide the pregnancy. How Marigold was born, how she was breastfed by Edith for nearly half a year. How Edith had left Marigold in Switzerland for two months and then come back for her. Edith finally told Marigold about the Drewes and how Granny Cora had finally found it all out and let Marigold move into the nursery at Downton.

Marigold had been quiet while listening to all this. She hadn't opened her mouth once, just listened to Edith, looking more and more shocked, until Edith finally stopped talking.

"Are you finished now?" Marigold had asked in an angry tone, quite different from the way she usually spoke to her mother.

"Yes", Edith said. "The rest of it you already know."

Then Marigold exploded.

"How dared you!" she shouted at her mother, tears filling her eyes. "How could you leave me like that? A little baby among total strangers? You don't love me! I will never speak to you again!"

Before Edith had time to answer Marigold had run away to lock herself into her room.

...

When Edith had tried to get up from the sofa to go after her heartbroken daughter, she felt a wave of pain. It was the first contraction and it was a really strong one. The baby wanted to get out - a whole month too early.

It had scared her - and her own fear had made Bertie turn pale as he rang for the doctor and helped her into bed.

Edith had asked Bertie to get his mother to come and be with her, to have someone from the family with her, since she knew that Bertie himself wouldn't be allowed to stay.

The doctor and the nurse had strongly insisted that no men belonged in there - except the doctor himself of course - so Bertie was promptly whisked out into the corridor as soon as they had arrived.

...

During the whole delivery, in every short pause between the pains, Edith thought about Marigold and how upset she had been.

Bertie's Mother was holding Edith's hand and wiping her forehead. Edith liked Patricia, and was happy to have her there, but she wondered if it wouldn't be better for Bertie and other fathers if they were allowed to be with their wives and see their children being born.

...

One last push and then...

"You have got a little girl", the doctor said, as Edith heard her new baby's feeble cries.

"Is she all right?" Edith asked. "Since it is one month early..."

"Yes, she seems quite healthy", the doctor said after a quick examination of the baby. "Small but healthy."

He handed the baby girl over to the nurse to clean up and dress.

"But we are not quite finished", he added softly. Edith thought he was talking about the placenta.

When Edith tried to sit up and take a look at her new baby, she felt something very strange. The baby was kicking very hard inside her womb. How could this be?

It took Edith a long, puzzled moment to realise that she was soon going to give birth to her _fifth_ child.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for the lovely comments to last chapter! Please leave a comment!

...

I'm sorry about killing Violet, but this is more than ten years after CS6 and noone can live forever.


	4. Elizabeth

Just a few hours earlier Lady Elizabeth Pelham, the second daughter of the Marquess and Marchioness of Hexham, had lived a tranquil and happy life.

Then something had happened to the narrow place she was in. And chaos had started.

She was certain that her life was over then.

...

Elizabeth had barely started to be aware of her own existence when this happened.

She didn't know her name - in fact she hadn't even got it yet. She didn't know who her mother or father were. In fact she didn't know very much at all about any part of human existence.

She had observed that when she sucked her thumb there was a sensation both in her mouth and in the tumb, so they must both be part of her. She had no words yet to express this or any other thought, but she knew that there was a difference between her thumb and the other things around her - the walls, the sounds she could hear, the kicks she sometimes got from someone or something somewhere close beside her.

...

Perhaps the people around Elizabeth thought that her life started at the very moment when she finally got out from her comfortable home. But to Elizabeth herself it was just another ordeal, following the long time her body had been pressed head first through that narrow opening.

She closed her eyes to avoid the blinding lights. Then she opened her mouth to let out her first cries.

"You have got a little girl", she heard a very unfamiliar voice say. Elizabeth didn't understand any of the words, of course, but her ears didn't like the sound of that voice.

"Is she all right?" At least something familiar! She had heard that voice many times, talking to her and singing for her. It was much louder to her ears now, but still it was the same voice that had reached her so many times before in that warm and nice place she used to be in...

Before chaos started.

...

Elizabeth felt herself moved around, put down and then taken up again. Then she was rubbed with something wet and soggy, after that she was wrapped into something dry.

All the time people were talking around her. She was carried from person to person, put into someone's arms and then into someone else's arms.

There was nothing she could do about any of this, she was so totally helpless. No one was asking what she herself wanted.

Elizabeth was extremely tired after all this. So she just stopped crying and went to sleep.

...

So it happened that Elizabeth was already sleeping when she was carried out into the corridor and handed over to her father.

Perhaps that was as well. Because when her big sister shouted at their father to go away a little later, Elizabeth didn't hear her. So Marigold didn't make such a bad first impression on her little sister as she might otherwise have done.

When Elizabeth woke up half an hour later she was lying in Marigold's arms. Her sister was looking down at her with an expression of utter gentleness and love. Elizabeth didn't understand who or what this was, of course, but at least she felt that chaos was over.

She was going to be taken care of, she felt certain of that now. Life was going to be good to her.

...

Perhaps you wonder what happened to Elizabeth's twin. Something very similar to the things that happened to Elizabeth. And that is all I have to say about the twin for now.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for the kind and interesting reviews to last chapter! Please leave a comment!

...

The birth of a new little baby is a happy event to most mothers and fathers, but to the baby itself it is of course nothing but chaos. The day we are borne is the most dangerous day in our lives.

...

I don't remember anything from my own birth, of course, but I like to imagine what it could have been like.

I enjoy writing things like this, because my main reason for writing is to put myself into other peoples' lives, and the more different they are from mine, the more interesting I find it.


	5. Marigold and Bertie

"You lied to me!"

Marigold was standing there with tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, looking straight into Bertie's eyes. He didn't know what to answer.

"You always tell me how important it is to tell the thruth and trust people, and then I find out that you have lied to me all from the beginning", Marigold continued. "You and Mama both."

Every word was true and every word pierced Bertie's heart. How could he ever make this right again?

Marigold was right, he knew. She had had her world shaken under her feet. She had calmed down a bit but she hadn't accepted or forgiven.

Then Bertie was helped by someone unexpected. The baby in his arms stirred. She opened her eyes very quickly, looking up at Marigold. Then she heaved a sigh and fell asleep again.

...

The baby had only looked at her for a moment, but it had been enough. Marigold knew for certain that she wanted this little sister. She wanted to stay a part of her family. She wanted to forgive them all.

The fact that her Papa didn't even try to defend himself made it all that much easier to forgive him. Papa couldn't help that he wasn't her Papa, she realised. Deep down she knew he wanted to be that just as much as she wanted him to be it.

As for Mama - she would have to think about and deal with that later.

"Come in!" she said to Bertie, opening the door wide for him.

Bertie entered the room tentatively, waiting for Marigold to take the next step.

"Please let me hold her", Marigold asked in a very little voice, all the anger suddenly gone somehow.

"If you just sit down, I will put her into your arms."

So Marigold sat down on the bed and Bertie put the baby into her arms.

"I just want to say at once that I think you have all the right to be upset", Bertie said then. "I _have_ lied to you and I'm ashamed of it. I haven't lied about anything else, though. I consider you to be my daughter, I really do love you, and most of the time I forget that you aren't my daughter biologically."

...

They were both quiet for a while. But Bertie was a practical man - and somewhat hungry - so he asked Marigold if she wanted anything to eat.

Then he rang the bell to ask for a tray to be sent up, with tea and orange juice and sandwiches and scones or whatever was possible to arrange quickly.

...

They were sitting together quietly again, Marigold on her bed, Bertie in a chair, waiting for the food to arrive.

Marigold was holding the baby. There are few things that are as comforting as holding a newborn baby. At least if it is asleep.

"She...she is so sweet and tiny", Marigold said. "I really do love her. I want to take care of her. She is so helpless."

"She is rather wonderful, isn't she?" Bertie said with a smile. "And so are you!"

Marigold knew she still had her Papa. Although she was less certain about having her Mama.

"Could you - would you be able to give her away to strangers..." Marigold asked Bertie after a while with shaking voice.

"I think you know the answer to that", Bertie said. "Of course not."

"So why did my mother leave me? How could she do that? Didn't she love me?"

"Of course she loved you", Bertie said. "If your mother hadn't loved you you wouldn't be here. You would grow up in Switzerland, talking French and probably thinking you were the Schroeders' daughter."

"If my mother didn't love _you_ I wouldn't be here", Marigold retorted.

"True enough", Bertie said with a smile. "But you would still be with your mother, growing up in London most likely."

...

They were both quiet while the tea was served. Then they took turns holding the baby and eating. Bertie let Marigold have some food first, while he held his new daughter, and when Marigold was finished he handed the baby back to her.

"How on earth could Mama leave me like that?" Marigold wondered again. "I have spent the afternoon thinking out bad things to do to hurt her. Silly things - to run away from home, to stop doing my homework, to...Do you think I'm awful?"

"No. You're upset. I think you have every right to be", Bertie said softly. "I don't know what I would do if my mother had told me that my father wasn't my father. Or that I had been left to strangers in a foreign country when I was a baby. But I do think your mother has been punished enough for this already. She has told me it was the biggest mistake of her life."

"Having me?" Marigold's lip started trembling.

"No, of course not! That's not what I meant!" Bertie said quickly. "Not trusting her parents. If she had just done that she could have brought you back to Downton Abbey from the start, pretending you were an orphan she had found in Switzerland."

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for the kind and interesting reviews to last chapter!


	6. Bertie and Marigold

Chaos was over. Everything was calm and peaceful in Marigolds room.

Bertie was drinking tea and eating sandwiches. Marigold was sitting very still and very quietly on the bed, looking down at her sleeping litttle sister and marvelling at how lovely she was.

Now and then, Bertie cast a loving glance at his two daughters. These two, he thought, what ever did I do to deserve them?

...

"What if he comes back?" Marigold suddenly said after thinking it all over for a while.

"Who?" Bertie looked at her in consternation, putting down his tea cup.

"Mr Gregson! My father!"

"Would you like that?" Bertie had heard of adopted children making unrealistic pictures of and prefering the parents they had never met, so why not.

"NO! I'm scared! What if he wanted to take me back?"

"OK, I see. You have no reason to be afraid. Mr. Gregson has been dead for a long, long time. He won't come back. And your Mother says he was a good man, he wouldn't force you to move against your will."

"But - what if?"

"Even if he did he has no right to you. You are my daughter. I have adopted you. It says 'father unknown' on your birth certificate. Your Mother is the only parent named on that. We pretended that we both adopted you after we married, but in reality it was only me. The legal papers are crystal clear. You are _my_ daughter. Mine and Edith's."

"Oh, good", Marigold said, looking down again at the baby in her arms. "It is not all that bad then."

...

"I just can't get over that she left me", Marigold said after another long silence.

"I don't think your Mama has ever gotten over it either", Bertie said with a sigh. "She told me that the two months she left you in Switzerland were the two worst months of her life...She was worrying sick about you. Even though she knew the Schroeders were good people. When you were at that farm she could at least see that you were well and taken care of, even if she wasn't always allowed to see you..."

"But...are _you_ OK with it, Papa?" Marigold wondered then. "With her doing... that... with someone else?"

Marigold was stumbling on the words. She had just learnt the biological facts of how little babies come to be, so this question was difficult and embarrassing for her to ask.

"Aren't you jealous?" she added.

"I think your mother asked me to be there while she told you so you would know I'm fine with it", Bertie said. "And no, I'm not jealous. I feel sorry for your biological father more than anything else. Because he never had a chance to get to know you."

...

"There is something I wonder about", Marigold said then. "Why does everyone always tell me that I look like you?"

"Can't you guess?" Bertie said. He looked at the photo of the family group on Marigold's desk - they would have to take a new one of those now, he reflected. He looked at his wife and his two strawberry blond boys, all three smiling back at him in almost the same way. And then the other group, him and Marigold. Dark, solemn, taken by the seriousness of the moment. And looking back at him with almost the same eyes, as well as many other features.

"No, why?" Marigold looked intrigued.

"Because you do", Bertie said softly. "I have seen pictures of Mr Gregson, but I think you look much more like me than him."

"But - even Granny Pelham - she often tells me that. Doesn't she know?"

"She knows. But she is just marvelling about it all. It is a bigger wonder when you know the truth, isn't it?"

...

"I think the baby looks like you also", Marigold said after a while. "And like me, then."

"I agree", Bertie said. "But it is difficult to know when they are so small, we'll just have to wait and see."

Marigold was surprised by the strong feelings she had for the little newborn. That urge to protect the baby - it was unlike anything she had ever felt before.

"I really feel that I want to take care of her", Marigold said. "I didn't feel like that when Bert or Peter were born. Perhaps it is because I'm older now than I was then."

"Yes, I guess so. You were still a little child yourself when they were born."

...

As Marigold sat there with food in her tummy, holding her little sister and feeling a great deal more calm and comfortable than she had a little while ago, she suddenly realised that something was terribly wrong.

When Herbert was born, Papa had come to the nursery to bring her to see her mother and her new brother. When Peter was born, Papa had fetched both Marigold and Bert, and Mama had sat there in bed holding the new baby.

But this time Papa had taken the baby away from Mama! Why had he done that?

Marigold could only think of one reason. Mama had died!

Marigold was barely able to breathe when she realised that. And it was all the worse because the last thing she had said to her mother had been so angry. She had told Mama that she would never speak with her again - and now it looked like those words had come true and would come back and haunt Marigold for the rest of her life.

...

Something was wrong with Marigold again, Bertie noticed. She had suddenly become very quiet and her face had turned white.

"What is the matter?" he asked softly.

"Is mama dead?" she asked with trembling voice.

"No, of course not", Bertie said. Then he suddenly realised that he had quite forgotten to worry about Edith while he comforted Marigold. At least I hope she isn't, he thought, but he didn't say that out loud.

"They told me she was alright when they gave me the baby", he added instead. "Perhaps we ought to go back there and see how she is doing. This little girl is a twin, you see, and Mama is giving birth to the second baby now. Or was, when I went here, perhaps there is another little brother or sister of yours born by now."

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for the kind comments!

...

I promise that I will be back with Edith and twin two in the next chapter. I guess I have been keeping you waiting far too many chapters for that!


	7. Catherine

Little Lady Catherine Pelham had had a chaotic day. She had been pressed out from the only place she could ever have called home - if she had known that or any other word.

"It's another girl", she heard someone with a loud voice say. "It is just as small as the first one."

"Is she alright", she heard a more familiar voice say. It was the person she would later know as her mother.

Well, she had heard that voice before, but not so loudly.

Everything was too bright and too loud and too noicy around her. People were moving her back and forth. Someone was putting something cold against her chest.

"Yes, she seems quite healthy", the first loud voice said.

After that someone was rubbing her with something wet, and then sweeping something dry around her.

Catherine wasn't at all happy. She was crying and crying. She just couldn't stop herself from crying.

...

But then things changed to the better. She was handed back to her mother.

"Oh, my little darling", she heard her mother say. "Don't worry, we will take care of you!"

Then something very nice was put into Catherine's mouth.

She started sucking, and that made it even nicer. Something warm was running through her mouth and into her stomach.

She realised that _this_ was what life was all about.

...

Eighteen years later Elizabeth and Catherine Pelham were among the girls presented at court to Queen Elizabeth in their debutant year. A couple of years after that the old habit was abandoned, but at that time it was still going on. The identical Hexham twins were a great success that year.

But Catherine knew nothing about that on the first day of her life. She was perfectly happy with her life as it was right then.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading! Thank you for the many kind reviews!

...

I'm sorry that I kept you waiting so long for this. I didn't intend to, but then it just happened. So I publish this very short chapter now, just to let you stop worry about Edith and twin two.

It is not the end of the story, I hope to be able to add a couple of chapters later on. Perhaps this will get me writing again.


	8. Patricia

Edith was sitting up in bed, feeding her new little daughter milk from one of her breasts. She was anxious to save her other breast for the firstborn twin to suck. The doctor and the nurse had packed their things and left by now.

"Where is Bertie?" Edith wondered. "Didn't they tell him that he could come in now?"

"I will go and fetch him and the baby", Bertie's mother said. "But first I must tell you how much I admire you."

"Really? What do you mean?" Edith said absentmindedly. She was still worrying about Marigold.

"The calm way you took that", Patricia said.

Edith still thought about Marigold, the girl had been so angry. And Edith hadn't been very calm either. And she still hadn't had time to speak to Marigold and try to comfort her.

Edith hadn't really understood what a horrible shock the whole thing would be for Marigold. She wondered about that now - of course the girl would worry about it, that the man she regarded as her father wasn't that in a biological sense. But Edith had even thought that Marigold might be proud of being Michael's daughter.

But this was of course not what Bertie's mother was talking about, she didn't know about any of that.

"Took what? What did I take calmly?" Edith asked her instead.

"When the doctor told you that you had to give birth to another child when you thought it was all over."

"Well, I didn't have much choice, did I", Edith said with a tired smile. "I had to keep calm and just do it."

"I'm certain I would have killed the doctor if he had told me I had to give birth to a twin after Bertie was born."

"And all the good that would have done you. You would still have had to give birth to him, with no doctor to help you."

...

"I'm glad Bertie isn't twins", Edith added after a while. "I wouldn't have been able to choose between the two of them."

"Twins can be very different", Patricia said. "They are not all identical. Sometimes they are even a boy and a girl."

"Yes, of course. I guess it would be alright if Bertie had a twin sister", Edith said. "Then you would have got the little girl you told me that you always longed for."

"I have a little girl", Patricia said with a friendly smile.

Edith looked down at the baby in her arms. "Yes, of course. You have even got two of them now."

"Three", Patricia said. "Actually, I wasn't thinking of the new ones. It will be lovely to see them grow up of course, but I hardly know them yet. I was talking about Marigold. I think she is wonderful, it has been such a pleasure to have her here. I was shocked when you told me about her all those years ago, as you know. But I have loved Marigold ever since the first time I saw her..."

Edith looked at the older woman who seemed to be close to tears.

But Patricia pulled herself together. "I will fetch Bertie now. So you can get that first twin back. And he can see the second one."

And with that she left the room.

...

When Mrs Pelham got out into the corridor there was no sign of either Bertie or the baby. Well, we all know where they were, but Mrs Pelham was rather annoyed at her son.

She went back into the room where Edith was waiting.

"He is gone!" Mrs Pelham exclaimed. "I have no idea where he is. He has simply disappeared!"

And she gave Edith an apologetic look, feeling rather ashamed of her son's behaviour towards his wife.

"Perhaps he thought one baby was enough", she added before Edith had time to answer her. "He couldn't be bothered to wait for the second one. I really don't think he deserves..."

"No, don't be angry with him!" Edith said. "I think I know where he is. In fact I'm almost certain of it. He is a darling really, I know he has gone to Marigold."

Then Edith told Mrs Pelham about Marigold's reaction that morning.

"She took it almost worse than I did then", Patricia said with a frown. "But of course, she had more reason to. It is not an easy thing for a child to be told. Her whole world must have crumbled beneath her feet."

"Yes", Edith said, surprised that Patricia had understood Marigold's reaction better than she herself had done. "It really seemed to do that."

"Don't worry, I'm certain that she will get over it." Patricia added.

Edith was far from certain of that, but she preferred to kept that thought to herself.

"You can send someone there to fetch both of them", she said instead. "Or rather - all three of them."

"I will go there myself", Patricia said.

After that she left the room, leaving Edith alone with her newest daughter.

* * *

AN:Thank you for reading! Thank you so much for the kind reviews!


End file.
